TSA’s Top 100 of 2013: 75-71 – Army of Two, Dead State & Terraria

With two articles a day we really are moving through our top 100 list at quite a pace. If you missed games eighty to seventy-six you can find them over here but for now it’s time to move onto the next five games. We’ve got the newest Army of Two, an RPG take on zombies in Dead State and we try and workout just what’s going on with the second of today’s two Tekken titles, Tekken X Street Fighter.

75. Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel

It really surprises me that Army of Two has managed to keep going. From what I’ve seen of the series it seems to be built largely on clichés, but clearly there are enough people out there who disagree with me to keep EA pushing the series forwards.

Whilst the first two games in the series focused on the adventures of Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem, The Devil’s Cartel switches to two new characters called simply Alpha and Bravo. They still work for Trans World Operation (TWO), the PMC owned by Rios and Salem from the first two games, but it would seem EA have decided that nameless protagonists are the way to go. Either that or there’s some plot point they’re trying to keep under wraps.

To go along with the new protagonists, the game also has new developers. Whilst the first two games in the series were developed by EA Montreal, Visceral Games, famed for the Dead Space series, have taken over on development duties. Along with a change of developer the game also features a change in engine, switching from Unreal 3 to Frostbite 2.

The game will take place in Mexico, and sees you facing off against drug cartel La Guadaña. If doing that in a third person, co-op context gets you all excited, then you can look for the game on March 29th.

74. Animal Crossing: New Leaf

If you have a 3DS and love Animal Crossing then Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the game for you. If you really love it then you may have imported New Leaf from Japan where it released last month, but if you’d rather wait for the EU version then you’ll have to wait until some point in Q2 of 2013. If, however, you’re clueless about Animal Crossing and want to learn more about it then read on.

Animal Crossing is best described as a social simulator that plays out in real-time. You live in a village populated by anthromorphic, cartoonesque animals and your only real task is to interact with them and live a lift. Similar to games like the Sims, there’s a very heavy focus on customisation. In previous games you’ve started with a fairly plain house which you expanded and customised over the course of the game. However, in New Leaf you start in a tent, but can work your way up to being the mayor of the game’s central town. Once you get there your customisation abilities move beyond fixing up your own house, and allow you to work on other houses in the town as well.

The game’s been very well received in Japan, scoring 39/40 from Famitsu. Personally, whilst the real-time nature of the game has seemed difficult to manage in the past, having it on a portable does seem more inviting. Of course, I don’t actually have a 3DS but still, it’s more inviting.

73. Dead State

Ah zombies, where would the games industry be without you? Perhaps people could be a bit more subtle with names though; why do they all need “dead” or “zombies” in the title?

Fortunately Dead State does seem a little more original than your average zombie game. Although it’s, perhaps obviously, set in a post-apocalyptic world, it takes the more original approach of being an RPG with turn-based combat. It also sets itself apart by focusing more on human relationships and long term survival than simply blasting zombies away to survive the next five minutes. In fact, if you’re smart, you can stay out of sight and avoid conflict with zombies entirely when you’re out in the world.

The game comes from DoubleBear Productions, and is the second Kickstarter funded game in our top 100 list. It raised $180,000 over its goal of $150,000, so there’s clearly a lot of interest in the title. If you share that interest then I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a while, as the game isn’t going to be arriving until December 2013.

72. Terraria

“Wait!” I hear you cry, “Terraria’s been out since 2011.” You are, of course, perfectly correct. In fact we’ve actually looked at it twice in Cheap PC Gaming – once in 2011 and a second time in January of this year. The important thing here is we’ve only looked at it on PC, and the version we’re referring to here is the PSN and XBLA edition, due sometime next year.

This version will involve 505 Games, and created a bit of an uproar as, back in February, developers Re-Logic announced that they’d ceased development of the game. When it was announced that the PSN and XBLA version would be coming with new content that wouldn’t make an appearance in the PC version fans were, understandably, not all that pleased.

Lets put that aside though and talk about the game. If you’ve never heard of Terraria before than you’re best option is to read the Cheap PC Gaming articles linked above, but if you’d rather a quick summary of the game think Minecraft in 2D. That’s probably quite unfair on the game, although it does give you a very basic overview of the game. A lot of the gameplay centres around discovery and crafting, with a focus on world creation.

Of course if you can’t wait to play the game then you can take a look at the PC version but otherwise we don’t really know when the console version will be arriving next year.

71. Tekken X Street Fighter

Dropping seven places from last year’s list, Tekken X Street Fighter is the other half to this year’s Street Fighter X Tekken. Whilst Street Fighter X Tekken’s development was lead by Capcom, Tekken X Street Fighter sees Namco Bandai take the helm.

Although the game earned a place on last year’s list, we’re still not really sure when the game will actually be released. We can but hope that it will arrive in 2012, and with the completion of this year’s Tekken Tag Tournament 2 it’s hopefully moved to the top of Namco’s list of development priorities.

Whilst we haven’t heard that much about the game since its announcement, we do know that it will feature fighters from both the Tekken and Street Fighter universes. It’s also clear that the game’s going to use a Tekken style fighting system, with Street Fighter’s characters’ fighting styles being adapted to fit the new system. However, we don’t know who’ll be making the leap over from Street Fighter to Tekken, nor do we know who’ll be appearing from the Tekken universe. Really it’s all a little unknown right now, so all we can hope is that more details will appear soon.

And that wraps things up for today. Tomorrow will see us cover even more games, as another ten will be revealed.

5 Comments

Blargron
09/12/12, 20:06

I’m still waiting to nab SFxT at a low price on Vita, but really I’m more excited for Tekken seeing its one of the many 3D fighters I prefer. Everytime it tends to have plenty of modes so coming from the PSP versions of T5 and 6 its been good fun.

the others are meh though. Except Terrina and may Animal Crossing (though no 3DS..) that’ll be good but I already have it on pc.. Should be good games.

Tekken X Street Fighter is one I’m really looking forward to. I’ve got a friend who is a big Tekken fan but not so much with Street Fighter so it will fun to kick his arse with my Ryu & Ken/Akuma combo.

Terraria is going to be interesting on console, enjoyed it quite a bit on PC so might pop back into it on PS3.

i can’t recall hearing about Dead State before, but it sounds like something i’d really be interested in.
i love a good turn based rpg, and i’ll even play a mediocre one like the Third Age.
graphically it doesn’t look like it can compete with the mega budget blockbusters, but it all depends on how it plays.

but quite a wait for it, i’ll probably have forgotten about it by then and it’ll be a pleasant surprise again. ^_^

i’m interested in Terraria on console, but i’m wondering how it will play with a pad instead of K&M, movement shouldn’t be a problem, but the way you mine and place blocks and items seems designed around the use of a mouse.
i’ve played a few of these side on mining games, and it’s much harder to get the aiming right with an analog stick.

ironically, a fully 3d game like Minecraft is easier to adapt to console than a 2d game like Terraria.

anyway, i’m looking forward to playing it, on ps3 so multiplayer will be an option, hopefully, but i’d really want a demo to know how the console controls work.

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